Qatari GP: Gresini Racing Friday notes

2008 Season gets underway with first day of free practice in Qatar

Team San Carlo Honda Gresini were welcomed to the Grand Prix of Qatar by a circuit that was in worse condition than they had left it just over a week ago, thanks largely to the sand that has blown onto the track surface since the test visit. Alex de Angelis suffered from front end chatter and suffered a crash when he was pushing for a better time. He went straight to the Clinica Mobile but had luckily escaped injury, other than a neck strain, and was able to return for the second practice. Indeed during the later session Alex was able to improve his best time by well over a second to finish sixth overall, while his team-mate Shinya Nakano also significantly improved his pace to conclude in 12th position.

Alex de Angelis (46 laps, 1.56.120): "In the first session we tried two different sets of tyres: one softer and one harder. With the first tyre I had a lot chattering so I was not that comfortable and I lost some grip which resulted in the crash. I took a heavy blow to the neck, but it was nothing too serious. In the second practice we really improved with respect to the earlier times, and got back towards the pace we had here in the test. That was down to hard work from from Bridgestone and everyone in the team, who have used the data we collected last week. We've also got some ideas for things to try tomorrow and I hope to go faster because we're already quite close to the top."

Shinya Nakano (44 laps, 1.57.011): "We started with the same setting as last week, but the condition of the track was a bit different, because of the sand on the asphalt. I didn't have enough feeling on the front so I wasn't pushing as hard as I wanted. The track conditions were better in the second session as it was cleaner so lap by lap I was improving my lap time. I tried some different tyres and I'll carry on tomorrow as we look to take the lap time down."

-credit: gresiniracing.com